Although all of the Guild members do have a proper role within the household, it is not our practice to perform these roles in any theatrical sense. True, our cooks really can cook, and do produce the dishes that are used, our ladies really can play musical instruments, make lace and embroider or weave, the Justices of the Peace are knowledgeable about early 17th century law, and can issue a correctly-worded license to an alehouse keeper if required to do so, but our real task is to share our knowledge about 17th century life by answering visitors' questions.

It is quite easy to stage a bit of amateur drama, and most history re-enactment groups adopt this approach because it requires little depth of historical knowledge. An audience may enjoy a brief moment of entertainment from such carefully constructed scenes, but they gain very little information. Our Guild members are not history re-enactors in this sense. A more accurate description would be that we are history interpreters. We do not perform drama. Instead we talk directly to visitors about anything they wish to ask about our clothing, the artifacts we use and the trades, crafts and social structures of early 17th century life.

We have specialists such as a surgeon, a physician, a brewer, a scrivener, all of whom are very knowledgeable about their trade or profession. The surgeon will not perform an embarrassingly fake amputation in front of an audience, but he can make you feel genuinely queasy by showing you the instruments and explaining primitive surgical techniques in great detail, if you care to ask.